Another Way For NJ To Thank Our Troops

For the better part of six decades New Jersey has exempted certain qualifying veterans with service-related disability from property taxes.

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The policy was extended to the surviving spouse who remained in widowhood as long as she, or he, continued to live in the Garden State. A pair of lawmakers is now moving the realty transfer fee exemption to those same spouses.

“We owe enormous gratitude to our warriors who are disabled in active service during times of war, and we can’t forget their spouses, who also share the burden and sacrifice,” says State Sen. Dawn Marie Addiego.

The Senator is being joined by Assemblyman Chris Brown is sponsoring a bill that they feel follows the same logic to allow surviving spouses to claim the same exemption of portions of the realty transfer fee that are available to New Jersey’s senior citizens and disabled residents.

“We have a constituent whose husband had become 100 percent disabled in Vietnam (and) he passed away from lung cancer due to exposure to Agent Orange,” says Brown. “She could no longer care for the home they shared, and in the process of selling, she learned that she no longer qualified for the exemption she would have gotten if her husband were still alive.”

Depending on the selling price of the home, the savings could range from $500 to $2,000.